Method and system for instant fax transmission

ABSTRACT

A method of providing computer users with fax services. A user activates a fax system on the user&#39;s computer. The fax system then activates a fax service by establishing communication with the fax service across a network and transmitting information about the user to the fax service. The fax system the uses the fax service to participate in any fax transactions as desired by the user. When the system is deactivated, communication between the fax system and the fax service is terminated.

BACKGROUND

[0001] 1. Field

[0002] This disclosure relates to methods and systems for real-time faxtransmission across a network, more particularly to one that provides acentral fax registration service, using an existing network and publicswitched telephone network infrastructure.

[0003] 2. Background

[0004] Several options exist that allow users to send faxes beyond thetraditional direct connection between two fax machines across the publicswitched telephone network (PSTN). One such method is an e-mail fax.Some service providers allow users to send faxes to recipients e-mailaddresses as attachments. Typically, recipients in these types ofservice must be registered users of the service.

[0005] An alternative method of e-mail fax is to map fax numbers torecipient e-mail addresses. When that number is dialed, the systemdetermines to what e-mail address that number has been mapped and thene-mails the images to the appropriate address. In this type of system,each sender must have an address book installed on the sending systemand the recipient must reside at a known e-mail address listed in thebook.

[0006] Another option for non-traditional fax transmission is faxforwarding. In fax forwarding, a message from the sender is moved acrossthe Internet and to the recipient's area code. This service requiresthat the fax forwarding service have a switch in the recipient's PSTNarea code. A drawback is that the faxes are not real-time.

[0007] Fax pirating involves bundling fax messages and then storingthem. The faxes are sent during off-peak times. This option does notallow real-time transmission, but can be helpful in countries wherethere are limited phone resources.

[0008] An emerging area that offers non-traditional fax transmission isInternet ready telephones. These may also be known as Web phones. Twodifferent options serve as examples of possibilities that exist withthese phones. In a first example, each telephone switch in the PSTNwould have a hypertext transmission protocol (http) server and a fixedInternet Protocol (IP) address. When an incoming phone call comes inthat is directed to an area code outside the caller's area code, theserver looks up the fixed IP address of the switch in the callrecipient's area code. The system would then establish a virtual circuitbetween the two switches over the Internet. At the call recipient's end,the switch would then route the call to the callee over the PSTN in thelocal area code. An example of this method is shown in U.S. Pat. No.6,069,890.

[0009] Another option using Web phones or their equivalent is to havethe server in the telephone device. Each device would then have a fixedIP address. The two phones connect through the PSTN, exchange thenecessary information to establish a network connection and thenreconnect through the Internet.

[0010] As can be seen by the discussion above, the current state of theart does not provide a method to provide real-time faxes across thenetwork, except as e-mail attachments, without providing fixed IPaddresses. Fixed IP addresses are difficult to manage and require extraconnection protocols, since most connections are done with dynamic IPaddress assignments. In addition, these approaches waste IP addressprotocols, as some of the fixed addresses may be assigned to devicesthat become inactive, but there is no method to reassign the address.

SUMMARY

[0011] One aspect of the disclosure is a method for providing a faxsystem to users. The fax system resides on a user's fax device, such asa personal computer, fax machine, PDA or a Web phone. The fax systemallows the user to access a central fax service that then provides theuser with the capability to send and receive faxes when connected to theservice. The user registers with the service and the system stores theuser information, including such items as the user's fax number, e-mailaddress, preferences for receiving faxes when the user is not active,and the dynamic network address of the user for that session. Faxes maybe sent in a peer-to-peer fashion or in a peer-service-peer fashion.

[0012] Another aspect of the disclosure is a method for allowing usersto issue send commands to the fax system. The fax system would collectthe recipient information and determining whether the recipient isregistered. If the recipient is not registered, the service employsalternative methods to contact the recipient. If the recipient isregistered, the service checks to determine whether the recipient isactive. If the recipient is active the fax is sent. If the recipient isnot active, the service determines the recipient's preferred method toreceive faxes when not active.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013] The invention may be best understood by reading the disclosurewith reference to the drawings, wherein:

[0014]FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of a fax service system, in accordancewith the invention.

[0015]FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of one embodiment of a method forregistering users with a fax service, in accordance with the invention.

[0016]FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of one embodiment of a method forconnecting a registered user to a fax service, in accordance with theinvention.

[0017]FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of one embodiment of a method to receivea fax from a fax service, in accordance with the invention.

[0018]FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of one embodiment of a method to receivea fax from a fax service where the recipient is not registered with theservice, in accordance with the invention.

[0019]FIG. 6 shows an alternative embodiment of a fax service system, inaccordance with the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0020]FIG. 1 shows an example of a system for sending and receivingfaxes across a network. The sender has a device 102 that has access tothe network 104. The recipient also has a device 106 with access to thenetwork 104. Access could be accomplished through local Internet ServiceProvider (ISP) or other network provider, local area network (LAN), orwide area network (WAN), as examples. The devices could be personalcomputers with modems or Ethernet cards, fax machines, web telephone ora wireless device, such as a hand-help personal digital assistant (PDA).

[0021] In addition to access to the network, these devices 102 and 106have the capability to set up a peer-to-peer connection in oneembodiment of the invention. A fax system resides on each device and afax service resides on the network 104, to which each fax system canconnect. The fax systems interact with the fax service to set up andmanage the peer-to-peer connection between the sender and the recipient.

[0022] In order to utilize the fax service, the user must initiallyregister with the service. This is shown in FIG. 2. In one example, theuser activates the fax system for the first time on a device, more thanlikely at installation of the fax system. At 202 the user eitherrequests registration or the fax system on the user's deviceautomatically requests registration with the fax service.

[0023] At 204, the fax system collects the necessary user information.This may include the user's name, e-mail address, fax number, phonenumber, and will include the user's current dynamic network address forthat session. Other information or any combination of the above may alsobe gathered, the above items are only intended as examples. As will bediscussed further, the fax service may offer the user the option ofdesignating alternative methods of receiving faxes when the user is notactively connected to the service when another registered user of thefax service desires to send the user a fax. At 206, the fax systemconnects to the fax service. If the user is already connected to thenetwork upon which the fax service resides, the fax system just accessesa pre-defined network address. If the network is the Internet, thepre-defined address will be a domain name, or uniform resource locator(URL), and the dynamic network address of the user for that session willbe the IP address.

[0024] The network could be any type of network, including LANs, WANs,proprietary networks or the Internet. However, since application of theinvention is easier to understand in the context of one network, use ofthe Internet will be assumed. However, this is for ease of discussionand is in now way intended to limit application of the invention.

[0025] In the case where the user is not already connected to thenetwork, the fax system will request connection to the network. This maybe done by a network connection, such as an Internet connection,internal to the fax system, or may be done by locating and activatingthe network software on the user's device, or initiated by the user viaan Internet browser or other network connecting device. Once connectedto the network, the fax system would then connect to the fax service.

[0026] Once connected to the fax service, the user informationpreviously collected is transmitted to the fax service at 208. Thisinformation is processed by parsing out the necessary information andentering it into some type of indexed storage, such as a database.Entering all of the user's information into the storage completes theinitial registration of the user. It must be noted that each subsequenttime the user connects to the fax service, the user information will beupdated. At a minimum, the user's dynamic network address for thecurrent session will be updated. This also provides the user to changethe fax number and current preferences for receiving faxes if inactive.

[0027] Once registered with the fax service, the user is free toestablish session to access the service whenever faxes need to be sentor received. An example of a general session interaction is shown inFIG. 3. At 302 the fax system is activated. The user may cause theinteraction by accessing the fax system directly, or the fax system mayactivate itself. For example, if the user is working in a wordprocessing or other document creation software and desires to send afax, the fax system may launch in response to a selection made by theuser in the document creation software.

[0028] The fax system then determines whether or not it is connected at304. If the connection is present, the fax system activates the faxservice across the network at 306. As mentioned above, activation of thefax system will include updating the user information as needed,including the current network address for this particular session. Afterthe service is activated, the user can participate in fax transactionsas necessary, including sending faxes, receiving faxes or just waitingfor faxes.

[0029] When the user concludes any fax transactions, the user candeactivate the fax system at 310. Deactivation will terminate theconnection between the fax service and the fax system, whether the userremains connected to the network. Termination can be by user request tothe fax system, set up to terminate automatically after the conclusionof a transaction, or whenever the user logs off the network. These arejust examples, with the first two allowing the user to remain connectedto the network if desired, and the last allowing automatic deactivationof the service upon disconnection from the network.

[0030] Several specific examples may occur within the general example ofFIG. 3. For example, the fax transaction in 308 of FIG. 3 may be a usersending a fax as shown in FIG. 4. In this example, FIG. 4 is anexpansion of the transaction of FIG. 3. Prior to this particulartransaction, the user has already activated the fax system on the user'sdevice, connected to the fax service if necessary and activated theservice by sending the updated user information to the service.

[0031] The user issues a send command at 402. As mentioned above, theuser may do this directly with the fax system, locally, remotely, or bywhatever means necessary to issue the command, or within a documentcreation software application. As part of the send command the user, nowreferred to as the sender, will identify the recipient of the fax. Thefax system will collect the necessary recipient information, includingthe recipient's name, fax number, phone number, e-mail address, aspossible examples. As one example, the sender may know that therecipient is also a registered fax service user and may only need tosend the recipient's name. In another example, the sender may not knowif the recipient is registered or not. This will be assumed for thefollowing discussion.

[0032] Once the user has identified the recipient and collected whateverinformation is necessary, the fax service determines whether or not therecipient is registered with the fax service. If the recipient isregistered at 406, the fax service then determines whether or not therecipient is active at 408. If the user is registered and active, thefax service sends the fax at 410. As will be discussed further withregard to FIG. 6, a peer-service-peer connection may exist. In theexample of FIG. 1, the system may return the dynamic network address ofthe recipient to the sender fax system. This then allows the sender faxsystem to establish a peer-to-peer connection with the recipient andsend the fax.

[0033] If the recipient is not registered at 406, an alternative methodof sending the fax will have to be determined. Several embodiments ofalternative methods will be discussed further with reference to FIG. 5.If the recipient is registered at 406, but not active at 404, the faxservice will retrieve the recipient's preferences for receiving faxeswhen not active. Some examples of these options are shown in FIG. 4.

[0034] If the recipient's preference is to receive faxes by standardtelephone fax transmission when inactive at 416, the fax service willdial out of the network to the PSTN at 418. The fax will then be sentfrom the sender through the network to the fax service to the recipientthrough PSTN. The fax will be sent at 424.

[0035] If the recipient's preference is to receive the fax throughe-mail at 420, the fax service will convert it to an e-mail attachmentformat at 422. The type of e-mail attachment generated such as a *.TIFFfile, a *.PDF file, or other type of attachable image file may also bedesignated by the user in the user preference file generated when theuser registers. The email attachment is then sent at 424.

[0036] If the recipient's preference is to have the fax stored forwardat 426, the contents of the fax will be transferred to the service at428 for storage. The service will then store the fax at 420 and hold ituntil the user becomes active at 432. When the user becomes active at432, the fax is forwarded to them at 424.

[0037] If the recipient's preference is to reconnect when there areother users trying to send faxes, the fax service establishes a secondconnection through the PSTN at 436 by dialing a number designated by therecipient. Once the second connection is established, a message is sentdirecting the recipient to connect to the network at 438. Once therecipient is reconnected to the network, the second connection isdisconnected at 440. Finally, the fax is sent at 424.

[0038] All of these options are merely examples of methods of sendingfaxes to a registered user that is not currently connected to the faxservice. No intention of limiting the invention is intended by any ofthese examples. FIG. 5 shows an example of a method to send a fax byalternative methods to recipients not registered with the fax service.As determined in FIG. 4, the recipient is not registered at 412.

[0039] In order to save toll charges, the fax service will determine ifit has a server in the same area code as the recipient's fax numberprovided by the sender. If a local server or other relay for the faxservice exists, the recipient information is relayed to the localservice at 506 across the network. The fax service then dials out of thenetwork establishing connection with the recipient's fax device and thefax is sent through the local PSTN at 508. If there is no local faxservice to the recipient's area code, the fax is sent by long distancePSTN at 510. As an added feature, the service may bundle several faxesand transmit them whenever a long distance connection is established tosave toll charges.

[0040] In each of the above examples, a peer-to-peer connection betweenthe recipient's receiving device and the sender's fax system is assumed,except in the store forward option of FIG. 4. The recipient's receivingdevice, whether it be e-mail, phone or through the fax service, isnotified and a connection established between the sender and recipient.An alternative option is shown in FIG. 6.

[0041] In FIG. 6, the sender 602 and the recipient 606 are connectedthrough the fax service on the network 604. In this case, the connectionis not peer-to-peer, but only peer-service-peer. Faxes sent through thefax service may or may not be sent in real-time, depending upon theservice load, recipient status and other considerations. Transmissionfrom peer-service and service-peer is real-time. One reason for thepeer-service-peer connection is for security to not disclose thephysical location of the sender/recipient that could be derived from theIP address.

[0042] In all of the above examples, no special equipment is needed, butcan be used if desired. A personal computer with a modem can haveinstalled on it software that has the necessary instructions to createthe fax system and connect to the fax service over a network, such asthe Internet. In this case, the method of the invention will be embodiedas software instructions on some sort of computer readable medium thatwill implement all of the necessary steps of the method. Alternatively,the fax device could be a fax machine with the necessary softwareinstalled in it, or a Web phone.

[0043] Thus, although there has been described to this point aparticular embodiment for a method and apparatus for transmission offaxes across a network, it is not intended that such specific referencesbe considered as limitations upon the scope of this invention exceptin-so-far as set forth in the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of fax transmission across a network,the method comprising: a) activating a fax system of a user; b)activating a fax service, wherein the fax system establishescommunication with the fax service across a network and transmitsinformation about the user to the fax service; c) participating in anyfax transactions as desired by the user; and d) deactivating the faxsystem, wherein the fax system and the fax service terminatecommunication.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein participation in any faxtransactions further comprises establishing peer-to-peer connectionsbetween service subscribers and the fax system.
 3. The method of claim 1wherein participation in any fax transactions further comprisesinteraction with the fax service for any transmission and any receptionof faxes through the fax service.
 4. The method of claim 1 whereinactivation of the fax system further comprises launching a softwareprogram on a computer of the user.
 5. The method of claim 1 whereinactivation of the fax system further comprises launching a softwareprogram in firmware in a fax device.
 6. The method of claim 5 wherein inthe fax device is one of the group comprised of: a computer, a faxsystem and a modem.
 7. The method of claim 2 wherein the computer is oneof the group comprised of: a personal computer with a modem, atelephone, a server, a network, and a wireless network device.
 8. Themethod of claim 1 wherein activating a fax service includes connectingthe fax system to the network.
 9. The method of claim 1 whereindeactivating the fax system further comprises terminating communicationwith the fax system across the network.
 10. The method of claim 1wherein deactivating the fax system further comprises terminating anetwork connection between the fax system and the network.
 11. A methodof sending faxes across a network, the method comprising: a) issuing asend command from a fax system to a fax service; b) collectinginformation about a fax recipient; c) determining if the recipient isregistered with the fax service, wherein an alternative method to thefax service is used if the recipient is not registered; d) if therecipient is registered, determining if the recipient is active, whereinthe fax is sent directly to the recipient if the recipient is active; e)if the recipient is not active, determining a preferred delivery methodfor the recipient; and f) sending the fax by the preferred deliverymethod.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the alternative methodfurther comprises: a) determining if a fax service local to therecipient exists; and b) delivering the fax through the public switchedtelephone network, wherein the fax is delivered by a local call if a faxservice local to the recipient exists.
 13. The method of claim 11,wherein the preferred delivery method is delivery by telephone and thefax is sent through the public switched telephone network.
 14. Themethod of claim 11, wherein the preferred delivery method is delivery bye-mail and the fax is converted into an attachable format and sent bye-mail.
 15. The method of claim 11, wherein the preferred deliverymethod is delivery by store forward and the fax is transferred to thefax service and held until the recipient becomes active and thendelivered.
 16. The method of claim 11, wherein the preferred deliverymethod is to have the recipient reconnect to the network to receive thefax and the method to reconnect comprises: a) establishing a secondconnection between the fax system and a fax number of the recipientthrough the public switched telephone network; b) transmitting a connectmessage through the second connection from the fax system to the faxnumber of the recipient; c) disconnecting from the second connectionupon connection of the recipient fax system to the fax service throughthe network.
 17. A computer-readable medium including software codethat, when executed, results in: a) activation of a fax system on acomputer; b) interaction between a user and the fax system; c)connection between the fax system and fax service across a network; andd) participation of the fax system in fax transactions utilizing the faxservice.
 18. The medium of claim 17, wherein utilization of the faxservice further comprises using the fax service to locate users withwhom transactions are desired.
 19. The medium of claim 17, whereinutilization of the fax service further comprises reception andtransmission of any faxes through the fax service.